08/04/2026
It is worth remembering that Freud started as a neurologist and developed psychoanalysis from his medical practice. This Atlantic article quotes neuroscientist and psychoanalyst, Mark Solms, who recently published a monumental new translation of all of Freud's work.
"For years, evidence of the unconscious seemed inaccessible to objective science. How can you prove the existence of something that none of us, by definition, can be subjectively aware of ? But technologies unavailable to Freud have demonstrated that much of what happens in the brain is in fact unconscious. Studies using fMRI machines have revealed that when frightening images or angry faces are shown to people too fast for them to consciously perceive them, their brains nevertheless register the fear stimuli: The machines detect a flare of activity in the amygdala, which is followed by a surge in heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones, among other responses. The feeling of fear in the body then breaks into consciousness, and the brain makes decisions in response to that. It has become hard to deny that, at least in basic outline, Freud was right about the unconscious."
A neuroscientist dares to argue that old-fashioned psychoanalysis holds the key to curing mental illness.
